September 2020 Member of the Month: Rachel Lesniak
Meet
Rachel Lesniak
What is your name?
Rachel Lesniak
Where do you work?
WMATA
What is your title?
Sr. Analyst, Strategic Initiatives
What is your preferred way to get around the District?
I love taking Metrobus, but during quarantine, I’ve stayed off it out of respect for the people who need it more. I now walk to my errands (weekly grocery trip and occasional to-go coffee) and bike on longer trips.
What is your favorite part of being a YPT-DC member?
My favorite part is the people, which is cliché but entirely true. I remember my first YPT-DC event before I even got a job in transportation – I felt welcome even as a newbie, and everyone shared endless amounts of career advice. I’ve seen this enthusiasm sustained over the years I’ve been a part of YPT-DC, which is why I keep coming back.
What inspired you to pursue a career in transportation?
When I went home to the Chicago suburbs after my first semester in DC, I felt stuck. In DC, I could walk everywhere and ride the Metro for farther trips. At home, my street had no sidewalks and the nearest transit was 20 miles away. I started to learn about why this was intentional and got hooked on the topic. I don’t remember why I decided to make it a career but I’m sure glad I did.
Describe a job or project that you are most proud of:
At Metro, my team dives into track access, the process of getting crews on the right-of-way each night for maintenance and capital work. I’ve enjoyed doing some heavy data analysis to understand the nuances of the as-is process, propose improvements, and measure the success. One dependency to get on the track is working around the revenue-class train schedule, which is tough to understand when looking at flat PDF schedules. I'm proud I was able to use my service planning knowledge and experience using R to understand the differences in the schedule for each part of the system, which was a breakthrough in our approach.
What is the best professional advice that you've received?
Be your authentic self, especially with the public. I received this advice before I knew what my authentic self really was. After carrying that advice with me for a couple years, I can see now I’ve found a balance between being the serious professional prepared with facts and data and showing my authentic personality of being enthusiastic and approachable.
Share a non-transportation fun fact about you!
In quarantine, I started stamp collecting. I now collect DC-themed stamps, with the best obviously being the 2003 diamond stamp with row homes and the L’Enfant Plan map.